– SINCAID EARNING RESPECT

by Mick Hammond – MMAWeekly.com
There’s something to be said for proving people wrong. It’s easy for the masses to underestimate someone based on a few specific performances and when you show them that they were incorrect and validate yourself it can be a great feeling.

Such could be said for Lodune Sincaid. At the end of last year it could have been easy for people to have written him off after his performance during the inaugural season of The Ultimate Fighter.

He had been the second fighter eliminated, the first through an actual fight in which he was quickly dispatched. Then heading into the TUF Finale Sincaid wasn’t seen as much of a threat against Nate Quarry, himself eliminated from the show via injury.

It took just over three minutes for Quarry to dispatch Sincaid and just like that Lodune was out of the UFC while Quarry went onto later contend for the company’s Middleweight Championship.

After the Quarry debacle, Sincaid suffered only the second official loss of his career to up and comer Kaycey Uscola in the XFC. It looked as if Sincaid would not live up to his inclusion into TUF and may fade away into obscurity… but Lodune had other ideas.

People had forgotten that Sincaid had gone undefeated prior to TUF 1. In six previous fights he had not been pushed beyond the first round and he showed diversity winning by submissions and KO’s.

So when 2006 rolled around Lodune made a commitment to return to previous form, having moved up to Oregon to work with Curtis Crawford (of Evan Tanner training fame) and gone back up to his natural 205lb weight class. Sincaid was intent on rejuvenating his career.

Lodune would face off against former TUF 1 teammate Alex Schoenauer in Matt Lindland’s Sportfight organization in his fist bout of the year. Quickly Sincaid silence critics who thought perhaps he might have been one of the show’s weak links when he submitted Alex just under four minutes into the fight.

Slight vindication was Sincaid’s as he readied himself for the biggest test of his career at WEC 19 against James Irvin, a fighter himself looking for a little redemption coming off a loss to TUF 1’s Stephan Bonnar.

Again ruled out as a serious threat in his fight, Lodune stepped up and proved everyone wrong. Asserting himself quickly and often with takedowns, Sincaid fallowed Bonnar’s blueprint and kept Irvin on the mat and used effective ground ‘n pound over three rounds to get a victory.

It was Sincaid’s second straight win over a regarded light-heavyweight that he was not expected to beat and what Sincaid’s future holds, it’s not certain, but what is for sure is that he has shed any ill preconceived notions that he wasn’t a solid fighter.

At WEC 19 Lodune proved you can go through a tough time and then come back stronger than ever. Having silenced his critics and proven the majority of the community wrong, it appears that Sincaid is back on track and ready to make his own mark on MMA in 2006.